Senate Bill 1125, Authorize more state government housing subsidy debt: Passed 33 to 5 in the Senate To increase from $3 billion to $4.2 billion the amount of debt the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) may incur in performing its role of providing taxpayer-backed mortgage loan guarantees, subsidies to certain developers and more.

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Senate Bill 620, Authorize “parent trigger” charter school conversion of failing schools: Passed 20 to 18 in the Senate To require a public school that is in the lowest-achieving 5 percent of schools statewide to be essentially converted into a charter school if 60 percent of the parents sign a petition requesting this, or 51 percent of the parents plus 60 percent of the teachers. Employees in the resulting "conversion school" would not be subject to the district's union contract or necessarily included in the state-run school pension system. Republicans Caswell, Emmons, Hansen, Jones, Rocca and Schuitmaker joined all Democrats in voting "no."

Senate Bill 1146, Expand historic vehicle registration discount during Dream Cruise month: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate To establish that during the month of August all vehicles 25 years old or more which are owned solely as a collectors item and not used for daily transportation will be considered “historic vehicles” for purposes of obtaining a discounted vehicle registration.

Senate Bill 1130,Revise state “critical dunes” use restrictions: Passed 26 to 12 To revise a law restricting the use by property owners of land considered to be “critical dunes.” Among other things this would prohibit local regulations more restrictive than state ones, and allow use permits to be denied only when it is “more likely than not that the actual harm to the environment will significantly damage the public interest” according to burden of proof criteria specified in the bill.

House Bill 5009, Exempt senior center poker from (private) gambling ban: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate To exempt low stakes card games (25-cent maximum “ante” and $5 maximum "pot" and initial "buy-in") in government (but not private) senior centers from state prohibitions on (private) gambling. Under current law the exemption applies only to senior citizen housing facilities.

Senate Bill 859, Regulate “portable electronic device” extended warranty plans: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate To impose new regulations on extended warranty and service plans sold to cover portable electronic devices. The bill would define these agreements as “insurance” and regulate them under the same comprehensive regulatory regime imposed on the sale of regular insurance policies.

Senate Bill 984, Repeal ban on non-contiguous state long gun purchase: Passed 36 to 2 in the Senate To repeal a prohibition on Michigan residents buying rifles or shotguns in another state unless it is contiguous with Michigan. Under the bill, Michigan residents could buy long guns in any state.

House Bill 5372, 2012-2013 state education budget: Passed 21 to 17 in the Senate The state K-12, college and university budgets for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2012. House Bill 5365 authorizes the rest of state government spending. This bill appropriates $12.944 billion for K-12 public schools, compared to $12.359 billion the previous year; $1.399 billion for state universities, compared to $1.364 billion the previous year; and $294 million for community colleges, vs. $283 million the previous year. Of these amounts, $1.798 billion is federal money, and $1.839 billion comes from Michigan taxpayers.

House Bill 5372, 2012-2013 state education budget: Passed 58 to 51 in the House The state K-12, college and university budgets for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2012. See previous vote for details.

Senate Bill 351,Earmark some sales tax money to roads: Passed 71 to 37 in the House To earmark up to $100 million of sales tax revenue realized from fuel sales to road projects each year, based on a formula specified in the bill

House Bill 5223, Require drug testing of welfare applicants: Passed 71 to 37 in the House To require drug testing of recipients of state welfare benefits if an "empirically validated screening tool" suggests a reasonable suspicion, and prohibit benefits if a person tests positive.

House Bill 5548, Increase health benefit contribution by retired legislators: Passed 100 to 8 in the House To require former legislators receiving the lifetime health insurance benefits granted at age 55 to those who spent at least six years in office to pay 20 percent of the cost, rather than the current 10 percent. This benefit was recently repealed for future legislators, although the state Senate succeeded in amending it so that 36 out of 38 current state Senators and 14 out of 110 current House members will still get the benefit.

House Bill 5246, Expand corporate research subsidies: Passed 87 to 20 in the House To authorize two additional “certified technology parks” ("smart zones") in which “tax increment financing” would be used to pay the debt on money borrowed by a government authority to benefit particular "large corporate research" operations.

House Bill 5705, Use Detroit utility tax for streetlights instead of pay income tax: Passed 92 to 14 in the House To allow $12.5 million in annual revenue from a Detroit utility tax originally intended pay for police officers to instead be used to pay for the streetlights provided by the municipal lighting authority proposed by House Bill 5688. This bill also requires passage of another one (Senate Bill 970) which would allow Detroit to raise its city income tax to 3.0 percent for residents and 1.5 percent for non-residents who work in the city.

House Bill 5699, Cut state income tax: Passed 103 to 5 in the House To move forward to Oct. 1 2013 an income tax cut from 4.35 percent to 4.25 percent that under current law will happen on Jan, 1, 2013. Also, to increase the personal income tax exemption from $3,700 to $3,950 on the same date. All told, this would save taxpayers $103 million this year.

House Bill 5566, Increase school and local “deficit spending” debt: Passed 73 to 34 in the House To greatly increase the level of borrowing from the state that school districts and local governments can use to cover “deficit spending” that exceeds their current revenues. Specifically, a $5 million annual cap on this state lending would increase to $100 million each year through 2018, and the maximum amount per loan would increase from $3 million to $20 million.

SOURCE: MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate. Please visit http://www.MichiganVotes.org.

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